Just over 25 ago, MDS was a captive insurance broker serving a single client. Today, it is a multinational insurance and risk management group with operations stretching across Europe, Africa and Latin America, boasting annual revenues of €275M.

From its home base in Porto, MDS has expanded to places as diverse as Angola, Brazil, Chile, Cyprus, Mozambique, Spain and Switzerland, and, through Brokerslink – the global broking network founded by MDS – has extended its reach even further, connecting the business to over 141 countries around the world. 

Many companies have expanded internationally through acquisition, but what makes MDS distinctive is not simply where it operates, but how it has built a business capable of succeeding across different cultures, markets and continents by balancing central control and support with local empowerment and knowledge. 

MDS in Numbers

A different approach to international expansion

“We have a common culture, we do business together, support each other and share resources wherever they are needed. MDS is one company, not a group of flags.”

For José Manuel Fonseca, CEO of the MDS Group, this gets to the heart of why the company is so successful. While the organisation’s international footprint spans three continents and touches four oceans, he has never viewed the business as a collection of independent operations connected by a common brand. The ambition was always to create an organisation that looks and feels the same, whether a client is dealing with MDS in Lisbon or Luanda - a significant challenge when operating across multiple borders and cultures.

The company’s first international moves targeted other Portuguese-speaking markets, such as Brazil and Angola. While a common language made doing business much easier, language alone did not drive the strategy. Instead, the group’s expansion was guided by a simple principle – local markets are best served by local people. That philosophy has proved to be particularly effective in Brazil, a market that many international businesses have historically struggled to break into.

“Any time I talk to someone in Europe, they say the same thing about Brazil - the legal framework is a really complex; the tax system is a labyrinth. But it’s not so complex for our CFO in Brazil because he has been doing it for years. Who am I to criticise the way they do things? If I want to do business there, I have to do it the way they want and do it with local people.”

While many organisations have struggled to establish a meaningful presence in Brazil, MDS has grown to become one of the dominant forces in the market.

Trusting the local expertise

Whether it is in Angola, Brazil, Mozambique, or anywhere else in the group, leadership sits with people who understand their markets from the inside, rather than with executives who have been parachuted in from elsewhere.

“Normally, foreign companies have a lot of expatriates moving around, but we don’t have a single one for example in Angola or in Mozambique. This approach really works, but it is not easy to get right.”

Maintaining strong relationships across a business that stretches from Europe to Africa and over the Atlantic to Latin America, demands a significant investment of time and energy: “I like to spend time with people so that we can build trust. It takes patience but I prefer to invest in our people than to have an expatriate overseeing everything they do.”

Protecting the culture

While many acquisitions are driven primarily by financial considerations, José Manuel says that when considering offers for their own business, MDS’s shareholders were focused on finding a partner that would protect the culture that had delivered so much success over the previous four decades.

“Ardonagh chose to invest in MDS, but we chose them too. We had alternatives - all the big players wanted to buy us - but we were looking for the right partner, not simply the highest price.”

For MDS, that meant finding an organisation that understood the value of an entrepreneurial culture and was willing to preserve the qualities that had made the business successful.

“I love Ardonagh’s approach. They invest in businesses and teams rather than simply absorbing them, and they understand what makes MDS successful.”

Since the acquisition, Ardonagh’s executive team have had the opportunity to experience this unique approach, and it is making a strong impression.

“We arranged for the Ardonagh Chairman, John Tiner, to visit Lisbon, Rio, São Paulo and Porto, and afterwards he said to me: ‘Wherever I went, I always felt I was in the same company.’ For me, that was one of the most important compliments we could receive.”

Building one culture across three continents

Building a successful business is a huge challenge in itself but turning a host of individual businesses into a genuinely integrated organisation, is another proposition entirely.

For MDS, the route to success on a global scale has always been ensuring that expertise, relationships and resources can move freely across the group, whether that’s from broking, risk consulting or reinsurance, allowing teams to draw on the full breadth of the organisation whenever – and wherever - the client needs it. And that requires a particular kind of culture to make it happen.

“You have to create the conditions so that when people need to work together, share knowledge or win a client, they all do it. Here at MDS, it is spontaneous, it just happens. They are not thinking about what is good for them, only about what is good for the client and how we can win together.”

Last year, MDS launched a new operation in Spain founded on the acquisition of a small broker and the recruitment of Alvaro Mengotti, one of the country’s most experienced insurance executives. Within months, this new business was competing for a major multinational account against some of the largest brokers in the world.

They won the account, but they didn’t do it alone, benefitting from the organisation’s ability to bring together expertise from multiple disciplines and markets. Alongside its insurance broking teams, MDS drew on specialists from across the wider business, including the Risk Consulting Group (RCG), allowing it to present a fully integrated proposition to the client.

“People were asking how fifteen people in Spain could win a multinational account. The answer is that it wasn’t ten people but a team effort with colleagues from across the group contributing. We approached the client as one team.”

The MDS philosophy goes global

By 2004, MDS had already proven that local expertise and a shared culture could act as the foundations of a growing international business, and the Brokerslink concept presented an opportunity to apply the same thinking on a global scale.

For José Manuel, the network is further evidence that local expertise and global reach are not opposing, but complementary ideas. He points to MDS’ operation in Cyprus as an example of the approach that has made both MDS and Brokerslink function so effectively. While it may be seen as something of a backwater in the global insurance landscape, the operation in Cyprus provides very specialist captive support to clients and is run by Christos Gavriel, a former Lloyd’s broker and senior AIG executive.

At MDS and Brokerslink, individual expertise – rather than market size – is something that matters.

“Part of the reason Brokerslink has been successful is because we have a culture of respect. A broker from a smaller market is as important as one from a major market. In fact, for the client, they might even be more important than the larger one because they have the local knowledge, expertise and understanding that the client expects. Everyone is important, everyone plays a crucial role and it’s that knowledge that has made it such a success.”

The emphasis on mutual respect has helped Brokerslink grow into one of the world’s most influential networks, connecting specialist firms across multiple continents, countries, markets and disciplines. Like MDS, its strength comes not from control but from collaboration, and in many ways, Brokerslink is the MDS philosophy made manifest on a truly global scale.

“We have access to the world through Brokerslink, and it has the same culture as MDS, but to build a common culture, you first need to respect different cultures.”

MDS has evolved from its humble roots as a captive broker serving a single client, to become a hugely successful, multinational business. Today, its capabilities extend well beyond broking to include risk management, reinsurance, employee benefits and alternative risk transfer solutions, such as captives. But the principles underpinning the organisation remain unchanged from those early days - trust good people, respect local expertise and give them the freedom to succeed.

The full package

The culture of collaboration that has seen MDS grow from a captive broker to a global player is also reflected in the breadth of expertise it brings to clients. While insurance broking remains at the heart of the business, the group has developed capabilities spanning risk consulting, reinsurance and alternative risk financing, supported by an international network that draws expertise from across markets and disciplines.

Insurance broking lies at the heart of the proposition, with MDS designing and placing insurance programmes for businesses across its operations in Europe, Africa and Latin America. For multinational clients, its own international footprint is complemented by Brokerslink, providing access to local expertise and insurance markets in more than 141 countries.

Through Risk Consulting Group, MDS helps organisations understand, manage and mitigate their exposures to reduce the likelihood of a disruptive event. Its multidisciplinary teams provide services including enterprise and project risk management, property loss prevention, business continuity, supply chain risk management, cyber and ESG, alongside risk engineering and claims advocacy.

Where conventional insurance can’t satisfy a client’s needs, MDS also provides alternative approaches to managing risk. Malta-based HighDome specialises in captive insurance and reinsurance solutions, helping organisations design and manage structures that can provide greater control over risk financing, stabilise insurance costs and offer direct access to the reinsurance market. Its protected cell structure can also make captive solutions accessible without the investment and overheads associated with establishing a standalone captive. Reinsurance provides another component of the group’s risk financing capabilities. Through its specialist reinsurance broking operation, MDS Re, clients can access reinsurance markets and risk solutions that require capacity or expertise beyond the conventional insurance market.

Through Solutions360, MDS extends its expertise into integrated business consulting, with an ecosystem structured around four complementary areas designed to meet the needs of organisations and their people. Its ecosystem spans finance and compliance, operational efficiency, cybersecurity and strategic growth, alongside digital transformation, data, automation and artificial intelligence. It also provides specialised talent, capability-building and people-focused solutions covering wellbeing, benefits, recognition and organisational culture. This modular approach enables organisations to access scalable or customised support according to their specific operational and workforce needs.

All of these additional capabilities are complemented by claims advocacy, technology, data and specialist advisory expertise, but the real strength of the MDS proposition lies in how naturally it all comes together. The same collaborative culture that connects people across countries and continents means clients can tap into expertise from across the group without having to navigate their way through the organisation. Whatever the risk, wherever the client and whatever the challenge, MDS can bring the right people and capabilities together to find the right solution.